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Gretchen Parlato Sunday kicks off the annual WILLIAMSBURG JAZZ FESTIVAL, the nabe’s weeklong tribute to America’s greatest cultural achievement. Co-founder and trumpet player Jesse Selengut and another Williamsburg local, trombonist Rick Parker, are directing the festival, which will showcase 23 bands at seven different venues. The festival’s mission is unique: over half of the represented artists..

Image courtesy of us.macmillan.com If you are craving Latino cuisine or culture, Brooklyn writer CAROLINA GONZALEZ has created the perfect guidebook for you. She and journalist Seth Kugel wrote Nueva York: The Complete Guide to Latino Life in the Five Boroughs, released this month by St. Martin’s Griffin. The 240-page guide covers everything from the food..

Jake Ehrenreich Photo courtesy of TheaterMania.com Brooklyn son JAKE EHRENREICH continues his hit musical comedy, A Jew Grows in Brooklyn, at a new theatre venue starting in October. The popular show, directed by John Huberth with musical direction by Elysa Sunshine, kicked off last March at the American Theatre of Actors and continues at its current home, Lambs..

Russell Crowe in American Gangster Photo Courtesy of DailyTelegraph.com Aussie actor RUSSELL CROWE has kept a low profile since his latest film, American Gangster, started shooting in New York this month. Crowe, director Ridley Scott and the rest of the film’s cast and crew took over Courtroom 224 at Brooklyn Supreme Court August 22. (Crowe co-stars in the..

Dr. Mehret Mandefro Who doesn’t love a party for a good cause? After two years of filming, and just back last month from a two-week shoot in Ethiopia, Park Slope-based Pureland Pictures, Inc. is offering a sneak peek at MEHRET — a new documentary and call to action about the alarming increase in the rate..

Marty Arno Former Heights video store owner MARTY ARNO looked like he was signing autographs when he was spotted outside Cranberry’s on Henry Street this summer. Turns out he was just sharing his home address with some of the many people he got to know during his 21 years in business in Brooklyn Heights. “I miss..

Jennifer Egan Congratulations to Fort Greene-based writer JENNIFER EGAN, whose latest novel, The Keep, was on the cover of the New York Times Book Review and whose reading habits were featured in the latest New York Magazine. She’ll be on a panel discussion titled “The Soul of the Bestseller” at the Brooklyn Book Fair Saturday,..

Sam Ibrahim SAM IBRAHIM, the general manager at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge, is right up there with Borough President Marty Markowitz as one of Brooklyn’s biggest boosters. British “Bobbies”-members of the British Police American Alliance-and the Ugandan North America Association are two of the international groups that, for the first time,..

Dr. Michael Avram Keeping Up With The Avrams? Fat chance. DR. MICHAEL AVRAM, Long Island College Hospital’s renown nephrologist, recently told us that he and his wife, Maria, have five adult children–Rella, Marc, Eric, Mathew and David–four of whom are doctors and two are lawyers. (Mathew is a lawyer-turned-doctor.) And they all live in Brooklyn. Maria is..